


Home Away From Home

by nybras



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 16:03:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7394182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nybras/pseuds/nybras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little fic about Lars and Sadie having an impromptu latenight heart-to-heart on the beach, attempting to indirectly strengthen their shaky and unaddressed connection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Away From Home

**Author's Note:**

> just a little ficlet i wrote to kill time on a plane ride home!

“Lars?”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake—!”

Startled, Lars jolted to attention, hurriedly scraping his palms across his wet eyes and cheeks. He finished by wiping the back of his hand along the underside of his nose, kinda squishing it against his face, and he groaned with embarrassment, fronting petulant irritation as best he could while he pulled his hood up over his head. He sunk into his knees, tucking away his face, too mortified and annoyed to say anything else.

Sadie held her hand as if she’d just tapped something that burned her; she was reaching out for him out of concern, having found him curled up like that. She didn’t tend to catch him out and about the city on his own—usually if he wasn’t out with his friends, he wasn’t out period, for worry of being seen as a loser. And true he must have suspected he was out of sight, like this—but Sadie wasn’t the only one who needed to get out to clear their head occasionally.

“Hey,” she tried again, using a soothing, softer, and caring tone, which just made Lars grit his teeth and curl tighter. She heard Lars sniffle indignantly. “You wanna talk about it?”

“No,” he snapped immediately, as if it were obvious. Sadie felt her gut churn with worry, but she didn’t push it. She carefully sat down next to him, finding it a little funny to find herself in this position again. Sitting beside Lars, who’s crying, while sitting in front of the water. But this time, the water was all inky black and blue, rippling with vibrant teals, yellow and white from the bright moon. It casted them both in a very faint, pale blue light, and Sadie mimicked Lars a little bit—her folded arms on top her knees, though, rather than across her shins like Lars. 

She just sat with him, which came to irritate Lars simultaneous to making his heart swell. He eventually lifted his head, sniffling and glaring at nothing in particular. He turned his head, catching Sadie mindfully looking at the stars, slumping her plush cheek against her folded arms.

“What’re you even doin’ out here?” Lars rubbed at his eye again, scowling suspiciously at the back of his hand to make sure he was a little drier. Sadie politely chose not to look. 

“Couldn’t sleep. You know, like, when y'get a lot on your mind? And you just kinda have to walk it off, or else it feels like you’re gonna suffocate?”

Lars paused, raising an eyebrow, and Sadie looked at Lars with an uneasy smile and a one-shouldered shrug.

“Sounds like you got some anxiety,” Lars half criticized, finding himself empathizing. 

“I dunno. I think I just didn’t properly wear myself out today, or wind down before bed.”

“Yeah,” Lars gruffed, his sentiment mere hollow agreement. “Feels like I can _never_ sleep...”

“I was kinda wondering,” Sadie said, and Lars quirked his frown a bit. 

“Whaddaya mean?”

“Oh, well…” 

Sadie shrugged, staring at a crab as it shuffled across the pale sand. 

“I mean, at work, you always wanna nap, and you’re super cranky as a general rule,” she laughed, looking up at Lars to elbow him. He did not appreciate it, and rolled his eyes to stare off to the side opposite of Sadie at nothing in particular, grunting. “So I just...kinda figured you’re always kinda under slept.”

“Well listen to you, Sherlock.” 

“I do what I can for the good people of the city,” Sadie answered, closing her eyes with a cheeky smile.

An awkward silence followed, and Lars eventually let out a withering, cranky sigh, earning himself Sadie’s gaze again. 

“What’s up? Oh! Do, uh… do you want me to leave you alone? I don’t mind, I just thought—”

“N-no! No, it’s cool,” Lars awkwardly asserted, rubbing at one of his biceps somewhat coyly. Sure, this was uncomfortable and kind of embarrassing… but it was better than feeling as hopelessly, despairingly and irreparably alone he was just feeling. 

“Just… I feel so lame,” he mumbled. “This is the second time I’ve cried in fron'a you. I don’t wanna be seen as that kinda guy.”

Sadie furrowed an eyebrow and raised the other. “What kinda guy?”

Lars fell silent, as if too embarrassed to even say whatever it was he was implying directly. The kinda guy who cried? A pussy? Someone irreparably unhappy in ways he couldn't describe, nor seem to fix? His gaze fell to the sand, the wrinkle in his brow deepening with his scowl. 

“Lars, look—I never thought less of you for any of this stuff!” Sadie threw up her palms. “It just lets me know you’re a person with feelings. That’s not a bad thing!”

“Well, I don’t want no stinkin’ feelings! I didn’t ask for this!” Lars exclaimed in desperation, thrusting his pole thin arms out in front of himself incredulously.

Sadie couldn’t help but feel a smile kind of curl at the corner of her mouth, and she repressed the start of a laugh into her curled fists. “Lars, everyone has feelings.”

“Right, and everyone poops.”

Taken off guard, Sadie’s eyes widened and she sputtered out a confused laugh. “What does that—”

“Feelings are shit, and they’re gross! God, do I really gotta spell it out for you?”

Unable to help herself, Sadie started to laugh—she tried to press her palms against her mouth to stifle it, but it was useless to contain her guffaws. Seeing Sadie crack up when he definitely wasn’t intending to be funny made Lars blink, but her bubbly laughter was infectious and warming. He rolled his eyes away, giving a smug little huff through his nostrils. You know, that kind of a one note indication of amusement for assholes. “Heh.”

“Feelings aren’t gross, Lars,” Sadie breathed, finally kind of overcoming her giggles as she wiped at one of her eyes. “You’re so ridiculous.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes it feels like I got more than other people—or somethin’, I dunno.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! I’m pretty sure no one gets as stressed as me about like— _nothin'_!! Stupid crap! I always feel like I’m doin’ everything wrong, and I don’t got anyplace to relax. I hate bein’ at home.” Lars’s voice cracked a little, and Sadie could see his eyes getting glassy again. 

Frowning sympathetically, Sadie felt her heart ache. She reached out, curling her fingers over Lars’s, which were by his elbow, as he was still coiled around his own knees. His lip trembled and he glanced at her with dewy eyes, his face flushing from trying to keep himself from crying again. Sadie squeezed his hand, turning a little so that she could have her other hand join its twin. Finally feeling brave enough to look Lars in the eyes, she spoke.

“Look, I know we don't—always see eye to eye,” she admitted, her glance dipping briefly down. “And I know we…we confuse each other sometimes? But I just want you to know,” she continued, leaning forward a little. “I never think poorly of you for any _this_ kinda stuff, and I’m always gonna be here to listen to you, okay? Whenever you feel like you can’t face going home whenever you feel like this…”

Sadie paused. The last thing she would ever do is invite Lars to her place; he’d never been, and not without good reason. Barb woulda lost her mind. Even if she’d been better lately… well, boys were different than softball or swimming, regardless of the relationship status. Ugh. 

“…just… hit me up? We can text, or we can meet up.”

“M-meet up?”

“Yeah, like… here, or we can think of another place. Somewhere safe,” Sadie suggested. “And nothing too late or crazy—! I like to feel rested for work—but anyway, I–I just mean… I’m, uh, here for you,” she managed shyly, and Lars felt butterflies in his stomach. He tried to resist the urge—the total impulse, to kiss her. He wasn’t sure what it was about emotions that made him so hormonal… or maybe it was just an impulse based on gratitude. 

Instead, he extended a hand forward, brushing some hair from Sadie’s face behind her ear. She tensed, blinking and alert, and he pulled her into a hug.

“Texting’s cool,” Lars said quietly, his voice coarse, tired and relieved, and Sadie smiled, returning his embrace. “Thanks, Sadie.”

Her smile grew, her cheeks turning pink, and she tucked her face against his shoulder, her fingers warm against the back of his head. 

“Yeah. No problem, Lars.”


End file.
